Type 2 Diabetes: Living With the Disease

Prevention

Keeping your blood sugar levels within a normal or near-normal range is the best way to reduce your risk of complications from type 2 diabetes. The higher your blood sugar level, the greater your risk for developing eye, kidney, heart, blood vessel, and nerve disease.¹¹

Be sure you have:

• An exercise program. Exercise helps control your blood sugar, because you use glucose for energy during and after activity. It also helps you stay at a healthy weight; lower high cholesterol; raise HDL, or "good," cholesterol; and lower high blood pressure. Try to do activities that raise your heart rate. Exercise for at least 30 minutes on most, preferably all, days of the week. The American Diabetes Association suggests that you include resistance exercises in your program.² Resistance exercises can include activities like weight lifting or even yard work. See the topic Fitness for ideas on to how add daily activity to your life.
• A daily aspirin, if your doctor says it is okay. People with diabetes are 2 to 4 times more likely than people who don't have diabetes to die from heart and blood vessel diseases. If you are 30 or older, talk to your health professional about taking a low-dose aspirin daily to help prevent heart attack, stroke, or other large blood vessel disease (macrovascular disease).¹
• Adequate treatment for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. These conditions increase your risk for developing diabetic complications, especially heart and blood vessel diseases.¹²
• Yearly screening for protein in your urine. This is the only way to detect early kidney damage (diabetic nephropathy). If evidence of kidney damage is found, medicine can help slow, or possibly reverse, the damage.
• Yearly eye exams by an ophthalmologist or optometrist. This is the only way to monitor your eyes for signs of damage (diabetic retinopathy).
• A plan to take care of your feet daily.

And two more important things to act on are:

• Don't smoke. If you don't smoke, you can slow down the damage to your blood vessels from diabetes¹³
• Keep your immunizations up to date. Diabetes affects your immune system, increasing your risk for developing a severe illness, such as influenza or pneumonia. See the topic Immunizations for the recommended immunization schedule.

More information How can I prevent heart and blood vessel complications? How can I reduce my risk for kidney disease?

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Author:	Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS	Last Updated: August 14, 2007
Medical Review:	Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Matthew I. Kim, MD - Endocrinology & Metabolism
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